A broadcaster shows local prawns to consumers through livestreaming at a port in Dongshanzhang village, East China's Shandong Province on February 14, 2023. Oysters, prawns and other types of local seafood were sold live to customers nationwide on various online platforms. About 120 orders were made within two hours. Photo: cnsphoto

A Chinese internet influencer "Xiucai," which translates as 'scholar' in Chinese with a total of 12.2 million followers and over two million likes, was banned from Chinese short-video platform Douyin for reported tax violations.

A representative from Douyin said that the account was banned for violating platform regulations. The influence reportedly came from Bozhou in East China's Anhui Province.  

An official from local tax bureau in Bozhou said on Saturday that the officials have received report regarding "Xiucai" -- surnamed Xu related to his personal income declaration, Jiupai News reported. The report noted that an investigation remains ongoing. 

The ban of the viral influencer began trending on Sina Weibo on Saturday night with the topic generating more than 580 million views with more than 20,000 posts and comments on discussion. 

"Xiucai" is highly popular among elderly users, especially among women. Data showed that 70. 44 percent of his fans are female fans while users older than 40 years old accounting for 79.8 percent of the total followers. The content maker's earliest video was published in 2020. Almost every video has over 1,000 likes, while those posted in the last two years have 100,000 likes each with the top three receiving over one million likes.

The videos were mainly set in countryside life and include singing lip synching different songs. "Xiucai" usually dresses in suits while smiling and striking poses while singing. The songs he mostly performed in his short videos were popular "earthy" songs. 

Photo: A screenshot of "Xiucai's" Douyin account from the Chinanews.com's Weibo

The increasing popularity "Xiucai" has received from his elderly female fans reflected the lack of emotional support and loneliness among this group, meaning they have to seek for spiritual companionship from the internet and through influencers like "Xiucai." 
 
"Xiucai" was also reported earlier by a 62-year-old fan for a fraud involving a sum of over 510,000 yuan ($70,237), but no illegal actions were found following an investigation by local authorities, according to media reports. The two sides reached a settlement on their own later. 

The large fanbase has created huge profits for viral influencers like "Xiucai," while there is concern that such short videos and livestreaming to end up being the "killers" of these aged fans' pensions.  

From May to July, a fraud syndicate named after a famous actor was disrupted by police. Quite a few women over 60 years old had been swindled to "support their favorite actor," while some of them paid more than 200,000 yuan to the gang. It was later disclosed that the photos and videos of the actor that the gang used had been downloaded online with the actor's voice artificially replicated using software.

Chinese authorities have stepped up tax regulation efforts in recent years targeting content creators and livestreamers. The local tax authority in Suzhou, Anhui fined a gaming commentary livestreamer named Wu Sihao a total of 4.77 million yuan in July for underpaid income tax of 2.11 million yuan from 2019 to 2021. 

In December 2021, China's top livestreamer Huang Wei, nicknamed Viya, was fined 1.34 billion yuan for dodging taxes by authorities in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province.

Global Times